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Australia (New Pleistocene)
As the Ice Age spreads through the world in five million years' time, Australia has been the most drastically affected as placental mammals introduced by the humans or the Holocene and marsupials battle for the ecological balance of the land down under. Australia's geology has also changed quite a bit. New Guinea and Tasmania have fused with Australia and lack of water has allowed a chain of shallow salt water pools to form in Northwestern Australia that have isolated the aquatic fauna and flora allowing them to evolve differently. As Australia has dried significantly and has caused the flora to become more adaptable and stronger and more importantly, less nutritious. This has caused much of the herbivorous fauna to become larger and in turn cause the predatory fauna to become larger as well. Covering much of Australia, harsh and frigid savannahs and desserts. A rich forest of mixed rainforest and boreal forest has started at Tasmania, through Queensland and eventually ending at the very end of New Guinea has formed. Western Deserts The deserts of the west are more diverse than in the Holocene. Rich with mammalian fauna, the western deserts are vastly different from most parts of Australia. Species thrive in these frigid and deserted wastelands that many animals call home and make a personal business to survive, cope and evolve in. ---- *The coulyerdon or Aussie cat is a large predatory felid descended from feral cats introduced by humans millions of years ago. They stand about a meter and a half tall and weigh around fifty pounds, they hunt small to medium sized prey and have multiple subspecies. They hunt a variety of animals such as perentie, wallabies and deer. *The diptroloota is a large relative of the wombat that lives across the great Australian continent. It stands as tall as a large pony and feeds on poor vegetation such as weeds and shrubs. They are largely hunted by coulyerdon and dingoes and are very nomadic migrating across Australia during the changing seasons. *'Red kangaroos' are also very successful, as a byproduct of the drier and more adaptable foliage, they have became much larger and now converse in groups of thousands. They are the top herbivores in their range and are hunted by a vast majority of Australia carnivorous magafauna. Dingoes are frequent hunters of red kangaroos. *The cane toads in the Holocene have increased rapidly across Australia and in 5 million years time they cover almost all of Australia with multiple subspecies and isolated populations that thrive. They have forced multiple species to become extinct in certain areas and are the most successful amphibian in Australia. Though as successful as they are, species have evolved or coped to ignore or hunt them. *The sand sifter is a small possum that has evolved to live in the deserts of Australia. It's prey consists of insects, the eggs of birds and mice. They live in simple dens and are almost exclusively solitary. The sand sifter is largely widespread across the deserts of grasslands. *The Australian camel is a smaller species of camelid descended from dromedary camels introduced in the Holocene by humans. They are one of the few ungulates that have successfully lived in the deserts and like the red kangaroo travel in extremely large groups. These camels must constantly fight for territory and posses a single hump smaller than a dromedary's. *The Australian fox is a small fox that is descended from the very invasive red fox introduced by Europeans during the Holocene. They travel nomadically across Australia and are found almost everywhere around Australia, they are prey for dingoes and compete with thylacines occasionally. *Several species of taipan are found across Australia, including a newer species called the giant taipan in which the largest documented individual was over 3.6 metres (12 ft) in length. They are very dangerous predators and hunt sand sifters and other smaller mammals. They have been known to attack Australian foxes and coulyerdon *The Australian desert rhinoceros is an evolved species of rhinoceros , they are a lot bigger than their ancestors , and they can reach the size of a truck , they are the descendants of escaped rhinoceroses from the Australia zoo. Southern and Northern Grasslands Around the deserts of the Australian continents lives a thriving grasslands that support a bustling grassland or savannah that is filled with gentle grazers and rapid predators. Guided by fire and seasonal changes are supreme in this place and the animals have had to adapt to the ever going competition between marsupial and placental. ---- *The Veiled dragon is a descendant of the komodo dragon that found a way to make it to Australia via land bridge and swimming from the Komodo Islands to Australia and traveling through the continent and dominating as the apex reptilian predator. The increase in large mammalian prey actually assisted them in establishing dominance across the continent. *The lowland brumby is a descendant of the brumbies introduced by Europeans during the age of exploration. They come in one color; a dark brown and travel in small herds that constantly battle each other for mating rights. Veiled dragons and dingoes make the primary prey of brumbies and this has cause the horses to develop in intelligence and strategy for survival. *The gracile kangaroo is a large kangaroo similar to the long extinct short-faced kangaroo. It stands roughly 2 meters high and live primarily solitary. They are also hunted by veiled dragons, but not to an extant that some placental herbivores are hunted. The gracile kangaroo is descended from a group of kangaroos that diverged from grey kangaroo around 3 million years ago. *The apex mammalian predator, the dingo has a long history with humans in Australia and in the future has and will have a lasting impact on the funa in Australia. The first placental predator and the first canid in Australia, it has only been straightened by the thousands of years of human pressures. Hybridization with domestic dogs have made them more genetically diverse and made them grow bigger and faster and even more adaptable. These animals have a long history in Australia and their descendants will hopefully have a long history as well. *The sheepish echidna is one of the largest echidnas in this timeline, growing about the size of a sheep or goat it constantly travels across the diverse and rugged lands of Australia, form habitat to habitat in search of food. They in a way are evolved more convergent to giant anteaters and few bother to mess with it. *The very widespread Australian rabbit is rather widespread across Australia. The Australian rabbit is thought to be a subspecies of the European rabbit that were introduced during the Holocene by the Europeans. Australian rabbits have slightly wider ears, are a little larger and have red patches of fur hidden subtly in it's thin light brown coat. *The perentie largely preys of rabbits, this not only controls the population of Australian rabbits, but keeps them from outcompeting other small marsupials and damaging the environment more than it already has. The perentie has become so attached to preying on rabbits, that it makes up over 70% of it's diet. The perentie form the Holocene is almost completely identical to the perentie in five million years. *One of the biggest land predators of the grasslands are the Prairie Irwin's crocodile, they evolved from the Saltwater crocodile which managed to escape the Australia zoo and dominated the freshwaters. They now resemble the now extinct Kaprosuchus, they are fast and agile predators, but they aren't powerful as the Veiled dragon or its Rainforest counterpart. Queensland Forest A forest traveling across Australia, from Tasmania to New guinea and stretching through Queensland, this forest is so very diverse with animals that struggle to find the most interesting ways to survive and in most cases flourish in the Australian continent. Birds make up most of the life here, with mammals coming in a close second. Scattered with both boreal and rainforest, this unique place is like no other. ---- *The giant cassowary is the largest species of cassowary in existence, standing up to 3 meters tall and weighing over a ton. They feed on nuts and rich fruits. They are one the largest birds in Australia and have no natural predators other than veiled dragons that will consume their eggs. Giant cassowaries are one of the three major dispensers of seeds across the forests. *The forest devil is a larger descendant of the Tasmanian devil that traveled to mainland Australia as a result of Tasmania combining with mainland Australia. They live in dens across the forests constantly searching for carrion and mates to survive in these diverse forests. The forest devil is extremely territorial like their ancestors and consistently fight over food. *Common amongst the forests, the forest boars are a species of Sus descended from invasive feral pigs introduced by European settlers, they eventually became established in the ecosystem and are responsible for rooting up forest and grassland. They have longer legs than their ancestors, as well as larger and more rounded ears. Forest boars live in a fission-fusion lifestyle and constantly converge in large loose groups near feeding spots and waterholes found throughout the forests and grasslands of Australia. *The banptra is a descendant of feral cattle and invasive domesticated banteng introduced by European colonizers and farmers in the Holocene. They eventually hybridized with each other and are one of the organisms that is responsible for dispersing seeds along with the giant Cassowary and the forest boar. They are hunted by a variety of animals, such as dingoes and veiled dragons; their carrion is consumed by forest devils. *'Giant tree kangaroos' are larger sloth-like descendants of the Lumholtz's tree-kangaroo, they rest on large sturdy trees during the night and come out to forage for fallen fruit and vegetables on the forest flour, it has also taken advantage of some of the surviving ancestors of the crops that humans grew as a food source. They stand roughly eight feet in length (from very tip of nose to very tip of tail) and are usually black and brown in color. *The eastern gray kangaroo is another survivor of the Holocene. They have adapted week to the changing environments, and now come in multiple subspecies. Though in the future their range is decreased and are now confined to the forests and the tip of the grasslands, though they have been very successful besides that. *'Australian koalas' are a species of arboreal marsupial found throughout the forests of Australia. They were once on the verge of extinction thanks to conservation efforts. Same species alive today. *The monkey glider is a descendent of sugar gliders. It has over doubled in size, and have become somewhat more herbivorous. Their gliding abilities have diminished, instead jumping mostly from close tree to another. *The short-beaked echidna is widely found across the Australian forest, it possess multiple new subspecies and are one of the last reaming echidna from the Holocene, though other species exist around Australia that are newer. A few of these species most likely split off from this echidna. These echidna are very successful in 5 million years during the New Pleistocene. *The Australian palm squirrel is a descendant of the introduced Northern palm squirrels that were introduced in the Holocene. They are very successful and sometimes compete with the monkey glider for resources. They are responsible for dispersing many trees by dropping their nuts. These squirrels are extremely territorial and are frequent prey of Aussie cats. *The foraging rat kangaroo is a animal that split off from the musky rat kangaroo and became larger. They have a tan coat with white spots and have a long gerbil-like tail. They are hunted by forest devils and dingoes occasionally and are widespread in the forests. *The big-tailed stingray is a stingray adapted to the life on the Australian rivers of the rainforest, they are bigger and can breath air and live 3 days out of water, they prey and are preyed upon Irwin's crocodile which managed to escape the zoo. *The Rainforest Irwin's crocodile is the apex predator of the Rainforest , they evolved from the saltwater crocodile and have 2 species, one being from the grasslands, these crocodiles are the size of the extinct postosuchus and are far more agile, they are territorial and have strong bites. *The False Rainforest Irwin's crocodile isn't actually a crocodile, but an alligator, they evolved from the American alligators which escaped from the Australia zoo and are about the size of the Rainforest Irwin's crocodile, they use the appearance similar to true Rainforest Irwin's crocodiles to frighten off giant predatory falcons when they are young. *The electric platypus is an platypus the size of an American alligator and are like South American electric eels of the Amazon rivers, they can use this electricity to stun their enemies and kill prey, they are found everywhere in the rivers and are also territorial. Different from their grassland cousins, they can eat meat. Category:Australia